“Why does your face look like that?” my son asked.

“Are you okay?” my husband asked.

“What’s wrong Mommy?” my daughter asked.

“You look tired.” my friend said.

“Is everything alright?” a well-meaning stranger asked.

“YES!” I yell. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

What is going on here? Why is everyone always so concerned about me?

Do you want to know why? I actually do know why. It is kind of embarrassing, but true I guess. Okay…here it is…

I have “witchy” resting face.

(she frowns — oh, wait…she doesn’t have to, that’s already her face. )

And by witchy, you know what I mean — switch the “w” with a “b” and you’ve figured it out.

Winning. That is what you are doing now. You just figured out the reason for my face. But me, not so much. I’m not winning apparently. I kind of thought I was, but that was until I became a mom and now everyone (and their mom) believe there is something “wrong” with me — all of the time.

So, why do I present witchy resting face? I surely don’t mean to, but I do and it’s because…

(No big surprise here)

Witchy resting face is the face of a mother.

Any mother — not just me. Okay, maybe not every mother, but a lot of mothers.

So why do mothers, the majority of the time, have witchy resting face? Because we have no control over it, that is why.

Most days we are tired as a mother. (Ha, get it?) I don’t even need the curse word there. It made its point all on its own.

Most mothers typically journey through their day exhausted and full of worry and anxiety. We are busy beings and 99.9% of the time, we have a million thoughts running through our mind. We don’t mean to come off as “witchy,” but we do and you, the general public, are just going to have to learn to be okay with that. Because unfortunately and contrary to popular belief, we are only minimally able to self-regulate it.

My request of you is that the next time you see a mother with what looks like witchy resting face, smile at her. Instead of asking her what is wrong, tell her what is right about her and what she is doing well.

Fill her bucket and know that by doing so, you may put a smile on her face, at least for a little bit.